To see more of C215′s work, visit the Tikkun Daily Art Gallery.

Christian Guémy is a French graffiti artist known to the public as “C215″ who has garnered some fame for his intricate, colorful stencil works. His works attempt a revitalization of street imagery: they are bright portraits of children, the homeless, religious figures, or other everyday people. For today’s cities, the urban landscape is a battleground of ideas, ownership, and residents. The streets of modern cities are besieged with advertisements, private apartments, restaurants, stores, graffiti scribbling, and people from all walks of life.

But what happens to the spirit in the mechanized world of commercial city living? When one walks the streets, the all-encompassing marketplace — both social and economic — can be detrimental to the individualism it aims to liberate. There is a routine, a mode of traveling the streets in which one is not fully awake. We are taught to eliminate vulnerabilities for fear of danger, to keep to ourselves, and maintain anonymity. The guise of “safety,” a lesson from the political realm, allows us to disenfranchise, dehumanize, and suppress our unique, spiritual selves.

C215′s work stands in opposition to the divisions and repression that the culture of the city can impose. Graffiti is commonly considered vandalism, is generally illegal, and is often associated with crime and violence. C215 takes the medium and finds a way to transform it, giving it a distinct, healing potential. He declares:

Vandalism aims at making people upset and making things worse than they are … street art aims at doing beautiful and meaningful artworks to make people feel better and happy. It is a Renaissance attitude which aims at turning the modern landscape, the city, into a more human thing.

These colorful stencil works seek to humanize the streets. For the homeless, the street is home. It is not a passing moment, a way to get from one destination to another. C215 takes sympathetic renderings of homeless persons and makes them public, eye-catching art pieces. His message is not direct. He is not necessarily making a political comment about poverty, or an angry outcry to a well-accustomed public. About his portraits of the homeless, he says,

I prefer a multilayered understanding: first you see a face, then you understand the figure as homeless, and then maybe you can understand I am trying to raise awareness on the homeless.

Striving to convey the humanity of all people, C215 recognizes the beauty and human spirit within the man who lives on the street. The act of making these works on large public walls gives a certain effect to viewers. The deeply human portrait, one in which C215′s creative individuality is boldly prominent, reminds us that we are all divine individuals navigating our mechanical surroundings.

Divinity is important to C215. He does not shy away from associating his work with the religious. He identifies as a Catholic and told me he wants to paint his faith. Religious figures, namely the Virgin Mary, make their way into his stencil-works. In a world in which utilitarian logic attaches to every behavior and commodity, perhaps these religious icons preserve something forgotten in the modern landscape: faith.

Another subject that makes its way into many of C215′s portraits is children, particularly his daughter, Nina. Of Nina, C215 states,

I am making art for my daughter, and I hope she will be proud of me.

His dedication to her instills hope for the future. A child, full of enormous potential and possibility, incites wonder in its elders. As a father, C215 seeks to construct a world (of both the street and in a greater sense) where he wants his daughter to live. He idealizes the way children see the world and points to a universal human innocence. The portraits themselves are reminiscent of a child’s perspective. They are lavish and vivid, almost dream-like in their depiction. They show the innocence and honesty that children possess as they playfully make their way onto large, public buildings.

The characters that C215 chooses to portray are significant: a child, a homeless person, a religious icon. He seems to be tracing his faith, commemorating figures and symbols that move him to provide catharsis to masses of disillusioned street-walkers.

You can visit the Tikkun Daily Art Gallery to see some of C215′s work. And to keep up with the new work that C215 posts each week, don’t forget to visit his website.